In yesterday's Guardian was a story about a poor girl who died of starvation after dental treatment went wrong and she developed a phobia. Now clearly there's a lot to be said about the role of the health service and social services here. I'll leave that for others.

What concerns me is this, from the article: "Although Sophie's case is exceptional, it raises questions about the way children with phobias are treated - and about the quality of community psychological care. Sophie developed her phobia at the age of four when a dentist scratched her tongue accidentally. From that time, her mother said that whenever she tried to take her for treatment she would run out of the surgery with her hand clamped over her mouth.” 
 

Eventually Sophie had all her teeth removed during surgery, “because the hospital dentist knew she was frightened and removing them all would prevent problems in the future.” 
 

All I know about this is the Guardian story and not the deep background. That said, if we're dealing with a child with dental phobia there's just no need for it to have reached this tragic conclusion. No need whatsoever.

In hypnotic NLP there's a technique known as the fast phobia cure. I've had great results with clients who have had real problems with phobias – heights, public speaking, all sorts – including recently a phobic reaction to other people being sick. It's quick, easy, and NLP practitioners and hypontherapists will all confirm how effective this technique is.

So why isn't it used as a matter of course in cases such as Sophie? I wish I knew. Sometimes people object to quick and easy cures because they don't get to the root of the problem, or because they may not last forever. Okay that's fine. The issue with not getting to the root may mean the cure needs to be applied again. Well, hell, it takes twenty minutes or less. If the technique had to be run through every time Sophie went to the dentist where's the problem with that?

There are other ways of getting successful dental treatment using hypnosis. In fact, some people opt not to have an anaesthetic and receive treatment while in trance.

Please, if you have any limits placed on your medical or dental treatment by your phobias or fears, seek out an NLP Practitioner, Hypnotist or Hypnotherapist. Let's have no more Sophies.